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More being spent on IT security, but it's not a failsafe.

The Director of Brisbane IT Support firm Connected Platforms, Eric Cheshire, explains what to do to minimise downtime and costs in the event of a cyber breach and how to ward off danger for next time.

“The ‘it can’t happen to me’ thinking around cyber fraud is starting to ease,” said Eric. “More are ruling out the cheaper providers and are seeking providers who offer training and education."

“I think plenty have realised that a normal antivirus software isn’t good enough to rely on,” said Eric.

What to do to set up properly to protect the business.

“At the very least it’s about selecting an IT support person or team,” continued Eric. “Ideally, they do more than support alone, but are strategic in a way that understands what’s critical to your business and knows how to protect it."

“Beyond that there are plenty ways to help secure your business, including installing a firewall, dns filtering, and a robust end point threat protection with a security operations centre (SOC)."

Staff training central to good IT practice.

“The most important thing is staff training, so they know what not to click on,” said Eric.

“We hosted a webinar recently and to register for the webinar we asked people to fill out one question, ‘what is your favourite password and why?’

“I was surprised that most offered this up. Even though some were our clients and they trust us, they still shouldn’t share those details."

“Critical, no matter what, is if you do get a strange message and click on it, then don’t just bury your head in the sand. That’s worse."

“It may not look like anything happened after you clicked, but it could be getting information behind the scenes, which you wouldn’t be able to spot,” said Eric.

What to do if you get attacked.

“There are some clear steps to take, if you get a ransomware message or data is encrypted, with disconnecting your network as the first thing,” said Eric.

Connected Platform steps to take:

• Disconnect from network sources. Turn off the modem.
• If you have an IT support team, now is a good time to give them a call.
• Identify what’s been stolen or encrypted. Go through all the files.
• Remove the malware or virus. A normal antivirus might not even pick it up and usually doesn’t give any useful information. If you have good systems, you can use your virus removal tools. A security operations team can help.
• Decide whether to tell stakeholders. Regulations around private data can insist that this is reported to those affected.
• Lock them out and change passwords.
• Then identify how they got in. Did someone use a link? An email? You might not fully unpack it but try to narrow it down. For larger organisations, a forensic IT consultant is often employed.
• Plugging up those leaks. Advising the client what’s happen. Offer some free credit reporting or monitoring, depending on what’s going on.

“It’s really about being proactive from the outset and realising that this can happen to any business, with those handling financial data more vulnerable,” said Eric.